Let's say that I am not pleased with the MT90 experience. I have a Max 01, with 66'000 miles. I had my tranny fluid changed at 40k miles or so with your typical tranny fluid. At 65k I used the MT90 and replaced it myself thinking it would be an improvement.
However, my car is now in the shop for a new or rebuilt tranny.

After using the mt90 my tranny felt very soft when changing gears or would efforylesly go into gear. It got so spongy that it eventually starting coming out of 4th gear into neutral.

One of the dealer technicians said they do not recommend synthetic fluids be used with the tranny.

As they drained the fluid we could see gold metal flake particles.
It has something to do with the thickness or viscosity of the fluid.
Too technical for me, didn't understand it.

Anyone else had this problem??????

 

i wouldnt necessarily blame that on the Redline fluid. another org member posted last week about putting Redline MT-90 in his car. he said that when he drained the STOCK tranny fluid it had gold metal flakes in it. so here is the post in case you're interested to read what others had to say:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....gold+AND+fluid

 

I would be interested in your response as to how "metallic" your fluid was on drain....

Mine goes back in about 500 miles to have the SM and Nissan look at it.

 

On the 5 speed transmissions, it is possible to drain the fluid out of the wrong hole. If this is down, the ball and spring, which is what pops into the detent as you shift gears, can inadvertently come out. If this happens, the shifter will pop out of gear on the shaft the ball was removed from and the shifter will feel like there is nothing connected to it. I'm not saying this is definitely your problem as well, but this is not unheard of.

The dealer tech is misinformed. The 5 speed transmissions benefit tremendously from a synthetic gear oil. Redline MT-90 is a 75W-90 GL4 lubricant, which is exactly the same viscosity as Nissan recommends. The 6 speed transmission is turning into another story. About half the people report a improvement with synthetic and half don't care for it.

Regardless, gold flakes are not good.

 

I've read good and bad reviews for MT-90. I'm trying to figure out who is right. Why can't everyone say that it rocks or that it sucks. Anyone with a 2K SE Manual that has had good experience with it?

 

Yes. It rocks.

 

Well, I've made notes of some of the feedback I received from this thread and had the dealer check for the "Metal ball" and spring.
As it turns out it was still in the tranny like it was supposed to be.
Which, still doesn't explain why my tranny is coming out of gear when using fourth gear? Keep in mind it only happens on fourth gear!
The common symptons seem to be more related to the gold metal shaving particles than the type of fluid used to replace it.
Maybe this is a discovery of bad quality synchros?
I should reverse my initial statement of saying that MT90 redline fluid has given me trouble. What I should have said is that my fluid changing experience has not been a good one.
I believe the fluid it self is high quality. The reason I say that is because I work next to the Redline fluid plant in Benicia CA, and have reviewed their product.
The issue we may be facing in regards to manual trannys maybe related to faulty parts. It seems like there are more individuals claiming that they have seen metal flakes when replacing their tranny fluid.
Any more feedback from users may help identify the true issue.

 

I'm replacing my tranny fluid tomorrow. I'll have my mechanic check for metal flakes and let you know what I find out.

 

Please DO! I am VERY curious to see what the dealer should say should flakes be noted.

 

How about taking a sample and having it analyzed?? That should tell us much more about any wear going on than just looking at the fluid.

 

There are actually two sets (maybe three) of the ***** and springs that I know of. When you drained the fluid, which bolt did you remove and how much fluid were you able to put in? The first time I did this, I was having an issue jumping out of second gear. It was only second that was effected and I only figured out the problem when I heard the ball rattling around in the drain pan I used. Again, I'm not saying this is definitely the same problem you're having, but it might help in narrowing down to the actual cause.

 

Wow, looks like some people are having syncro trouble, no matter what fluid they use. Others have nothing but the best of luck. I'm curious to find out what kind of mileage people have on their trannys, what kind of fluid they're on, and what kind of driving they do - particularly if they've had good results. Any comments?

 

I first changed mine to MT90 at 50,000 miles. At 52,000 I went in for a new trans. At 54,000 I went back to MT90, now I'm at 70,000 With no problems other than needing to replace my clutch.

 

I am particularly happy about the MT-90 experience in my '01 AE 5-speed.

 

Well, what did you find?

 

I've run MT90 on a different car since it was new. It's my '95 Talon Turbo (5 speed)

I now have 130k on that car and the trans is still like butter.

I know it's a different make and all, but I have to say, on the dsm board that discusses talons and eclipses, the same debate has always raged.

The only real conclusion we ever came to was that if anything, mt90 might be harsh on bearings. It's modified to help the trans shift better. That means you need to slow the syncros faster, which means the oil has to be less slick, or more viscous. So we always thought it was rough on bearings but good to syncros.

That doesn't jive with what you experienced though. Gold metal in the fluid comes from syncros (brass). Gears and bearings would be shiny silver, and make the oil look like grey mud.

Popping out of gear from my experience means something physically wrong with the tranny. A retaining ring may have broken loose or something specific to a Nissan trans has worked loose, allowing play in 4th. Whatever that object was probably had an intimate relationship with your syncros, since brass is soft, they were munged by the foreign object.

The object coming loose and the oil change are probably coincidence.

 

The outcome to my initial post was a bad 4th gear synchro, and destroyed washers. Whatever that means!
It just happened to be the same timming as my tranny fluid change to MT90.

They had to rebuild my tranny at the dealer.

Works fine now. All this happened between 65 71k miles.

The post made earlier about been careful with the spring and metal ball is also correct.
Be very careful with that.

 

Interesting.

I changed mine at around 15k to MT-90. IMMEDIATELY noticed a difference.

Right now, I've got MT-90 sitting in my garage ready to change since I'm at about 50k.

I'm now hoping for no gold flakes.

 

How much did it run you? or did you have the extended warranty?

 

I just changed to MT-90 like 4 days ago, and what I noticed about it:

-No more "clunky" shift into 5th gear

-Better "warm up" for tranny during winter

-Better 1st gear to 2nd gear action

-2nd to 3rd gear still got some "notchyness", but would say a great improvement.

Overall, I would give MT-90 a "B+"

I'll post a "long run" result in couple months.

 

 

I got 5 qts of MT-90 ready to go in also, i was getting worried reading some of those posts on the first page I'll post as soon as i get some miles on it afterward

 

Do you think the problems came from Redline? I've been doing a little research - Maxima owners are not the only ones to have problems with Redline:
http://www.240sx.org/links/product-r...tranny/dan.htm
I've been looking into Amsoil - they have EP additives in both of the formulations for 75w-90 gear oil. Amsoil says they exceed the lube and protection specs for GL-4, but say nothing about syncro life. Also, they come on out and say that their gear oils are slippier than normal gear lube, which would wear syncros worse.
WTF? Anybody know of a gear oil that will work??

 

Their gl2-gl5 formulations (both 75W-90's) are also formulated with buffers that prevent the EP additives from attacking softer metals. I've never had a problem running their stuff in a gl4 transmission. If you're really worried about it, Amsoil has an 80W-90 that is GL4 only.

 

Have owned the car since new. Changed to MT90 at 30k. Great results. Now at 68k, no problems.

 

Long...
Hey, thanks for the info! Wanna hear a story? Today I thought I found a non-synthetic 75w-90 GL4 gear oil (at last!). Well, it turns out that I drove 60 miles for some GL5 lube (the guy on the phone was short a couple of brain cells). However, his boss knew what I was talking about. Quaker State/Penzoil makes the stuff for Nissans, but only in 16 gal containers. Turns out the main difference btwn GL4 and GL5 is that the GL4 contains half the EP additives that GL5 does.
Didn't believe it until I saw it w/ my own eyes in the Quaker State book. So, that also backs up you saying Amsoil is o.k., since they run fewer EP additives than GL-5.
I tried calling Nissan-1 today. The operator there told me that it states in a Nissan technical manual that "the 75w-90 is just a weight, and the GL4 is just a type - you can use anything similar that you want." I asked about GL5 - she said sure can, gave me a ref # and agreed to put it in writing.
Of course, I'm not going to throw just anything in there, but if I get that letter - I'll scan it and post it on line.

 

How are your syncros holding up? Does it shift smoother than the Dino lube? It's starting to look like Amsoil is the way to go.... Now what do I do w/ this MT-90 I bought???

 

Synchro's seemed to hold up fine. I did develop a tougher second gear shift when cold, but I also learned to heel and toe on that car, so it saw a little abuse Shifting was a night and day difference ove conventional, especially when cold, but it's not a magic fluid, there was some resistance until it warmed up. Honestly, I think the MT-90 will give you a slightly better shift feel than any of the Amsoil lubes, but Amsoil will protect the tranmission better. If shift quality is more important to you, stick with the Redline. It's still a great lube.

 

I put in the Redline gear oil at 27K and just bought more. I am now at 55K and will change soon. Autoil.com has free shipping on any order over 39 bucks for anyone interested in Redline.

 

Question to you guys who've seen the "gold flakes" - are they really fine?
If so, I'm like the colonel - changed off of factory fill @ 52,000 mi (yeah, I know, but everyone was talking about how the synthetic was trashing their trannies, and the manual says you don't have to change fluid if you drive "normally"). I got sick of it because it was shifting like sh*t. The redline helps, but intermittently, like there's still some brass in the oil that's interfering? What do you guys think??
If the syncros do wear down abnormally, it might explain why people are getting such disasterous results when they change the fluid - loosening up all that junk in the tranny w/ a fluid change is sure to wreck havoc.
By the way, I'm getting 2 mpg more now than before the change, and temperatures and driving habits have been pretty much the same.
I'm interested in hearing any thoughts/opinions.